Stockmanship Journal

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Getting Cowboys On The Low Stress Bandwagon

There is no doubt that the industry
leaders are interested in having low stress cattle handling method
being the industry norm rather than the exception. I am no
sycophantic elocutionist, all I can do is call things like I see
them. Unless there is a direct benefit to the average pen rider ,
cowboy or ranch hand, they are not going to see the benefit in
changing how they work cattle. In order to get the rank and file pen
riders and ranch hands wanting to excel in low stress cattle handling
we need to do two things. First we need to show that low stress
cattle handling is more efficient. Second we need to give them a
reason to learn and practice it.

The best way to do this is through a
series of competitions in realistic low stress cattle handling to be
sponsored by BQA, with a sizable reward (as in cash and prizes) for
the winners. This contest would entail riding pens just as if they
were riding pens at work, only would be pulling cattle marked with
paint balls. A model for the competition wold be;

Twenty pens to be ridden by each
contestant with fifty marked animals to be pulled.

Each contestant starts with two
hundred points.

A point would be subtracted for
each animal that breaks out of a walk.

Two points would be subtracted for
causing animals other than the one being pulled to move faster than
a walk.

Each contestant would have one
marked animal wearing a heart monitor. The contestant raising the
hear rate of this animal the least would have ten points added to
their score and the second lowest raise of heart rate would receive
five points added to their score.

If a rider does not pull all of
his marked cattle, they will have two points deducted from their
score.

Rider will also have two points
deducted for every unmarked animal pulled.

In case of a tie score, the
fastest time wins.

While this would not be a spectator
sport, it would give pen riders a reason
to get interested in low stress cattle handling. If you were to check
the death loss and medical costs in any feedlot, you will find that
those numbers correlate directly to how cattle are being handled. The
less stress being put on cattle, the lower the death loss and
antibiotic costs will be. The more stress put on the cattle the
higher those numbers will be. The last feedlot I worked at, I asked
the hospital crew to run the numbers on all of the pen riders for a
year so I could compare them. Between the person who cause the less
stress, and the person who caused the least amount of stress, the
cost difference was over $250,000. With that kind of losses going on,
it seems as if a little prize money as incentive would be a cheap way
to get more cowboys on the low stress band wagon.

To
learn about my own intensive program for teaching low stress cattle handling in
feedlots, visit my website.

2 comments:

Great idea, although I'm not sure how it would go over for a sport, since people like fast sports, like team penning and sorting. Had a friend that just did a very short stint at a feed yard as a pen rider and can't believe the horror stories that he brought home about the place. Absolutely appalling from how the cattle are treated to how the hired help treats the business.

Randi,I'm not looking at this as a spectator sport. I am looking at it as a way to use the natural competitiveness of cowboys in a way which will get them to WANT to use low stress methods. By providing a substantial prize money you give them the incentive to start using it, and when they start discovering how much easier it is to do, they will keep doing it. A person would have to be interested in professional paint drying to want to watch this as entertainment....

About Me

I have been involved with cattle since I was a young child. Since 1972 I have spent the majority of the time working ranches and feedlots across the west. I am available for consulting or training in reduced stress cattle handling. If you are following a rotational grazing program I can show you how to make it more efficient by herding and eliminating interior fences. Feel free to comment or contact me with your questions!